I am one of many who loved coming to Chabad when I was a college student. So it was terribly upsetting for me to learn about a Jewish pro-Palestinian activist who was feeling right at home at Chabad, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

American campuses are so hostile to Israel today. As Jews, I believe we must speak in support of Israel, and that we must speak out against the organizations that threaten its survival. Why should Chabad at any university welcome the representative of an organization that aims to bring an end to the Jewish state?

Adam Meyers

Chicago, IL

Graduates of the Sinai Scholars program at Chabad at UW-M can earn a trip to Israel

Dear Adam,

You say that you loved coming to your campus Chabad House. Why? What was it that made you feel comfortable at Chabad?

Was it that your religious practices were identical to Chabad’s? Perhaps all of your beliefs aligned?

I ask these questions rhetorically, of course. If you’re like the rest of us, it’s Chabad’s policy of unconditional love that made you feel at home.

At Chabad, we aim to embrace every Jewish individual with the kind of unconditional love that the Lubavitcher Rebbe modeled for us. The Rebbe often quoted the great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiva, who said that unconditional love for our fellow Jew is “the great principle of Torah.”

It’s a value that we, Chabad representatives, aspire to live by—particularly on campuses, where opinions and persuasions are especially diverse.

Our religious practices may not be identical. Our beliefs might not align. They may even be at polar opposites! I may even consider a person’s opinions on Israel to be dangerous and deplorable. But unconditional love is not conditioned on a person’s views.

Just because someone’s at our table, that doesn’t mean that we embrace their views or their values. Unconditional love and welcome is extended to the individual, not to their beliefs.

At Chabad, we teach and share the beliefs and practices of Torah Judaism. That includes the belief that we must protect the 8 million citizens who reside in our Holy Land. That includes the belief that the Jewish people are indigenous to Israel, and are not, as some detractors like to say, European colonialists. And it includes the belief in an indivisible Jewish people, united in their unconditional love for each other.

There’s no mistaking how strongly we disagree with the SJP president and her activism on this important issue. (That’s why we’ve asked her not to advocate for SJP at Chabad). And yet, she still feels comfortable with us. Because she knows that we love her. As a Jew. Unconditionally.

I hope you will agree with me that it is possible, worthy, and powerful to connect to the essential soul of our fellow human, while rejecting their point of view.

Rabbi Mendel Matusof

Chabad Representative

University of Wisconsin-Madison

This conversation is printed in the Letters to the Editor column in the Pesach 2019 issue of Lubavitch International. To order Lubavitch International as a holiday gift: lubavitch.com/subscribe.

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I respectfully disagree with the Rabbi Matusof explanation. The student in question is not just a misinformed member of the SJP, she is a president. The activities of this organization bring lots of harm to the State of Israel and to all Jews as a whole. So, it is not a matter of having different views on some neutral subject. As a Jew she is definitely entitled to participate in the services, but beyond this I would personally ignore her.

Moshe Dubov

Ann Arbor, MI

400
days ago

yitzhak

Great reply. I would also state that only by directly engaging people can we convince them of the errors of their ways. There may only be a 1% chance of doing so by inviting her in and engaging with her, but if jews completely shunned this person because of her advocacy, there would be zero chance of convincing her of her error.

It is very possible she does not even realize the extent to which she has been manipulated and used by those who hate jews. Only love can overcome that.

401
days ago

Leah Altmann

B"H Thank you for treating a Jew as a Jew... it is the only way to draw them out, eventually - or better, right away - of unwholesome and dangerous involvements... for more information on the program this guest was involved with, please visit canarymission.org ... they are not satisfied with BDS. Don't post this comment if you think it won't be safe for Canary Mission... they are a vital organization, right now, to investigate and spread the word about what is in our midst that does not want us to live.